Dallas Empire benching and trading away Cuyler “Huke” Garland has yet to pay dividends. Dallas is 2-3, including the 3-0 sweep they just suffered at the hands of the Atlanta FaZe during the Stage 3 Major, since benching Huke for Tyler “FeLo” Johnson in April.
The Empire’s record since benching Huke wouldn’t be as terrible if it weren’t for the magnitude of their losses. They’ve been swept in every defeat with the latest coming at the Stage 3 Major. Atlanta took Dallas to school as they literally laughed their way through the series.
Dallas fails to win a map against Atlanta FaZe
Drawing FaZe in round one of the Stage 3 Major was the worst-case scenario for the Empire. Though Dallas was able to keep up with FaZe in the Hardpoint and Control, they looked like an amateur squad in Search and Destroy. Ian “Crimsix” Porter finished without a kill, going 0-7. Checkmate Search and Destroy continued to be FaZe’s bread and butter, as the roster hasn’t lost a map on that mode/map combination.
This @ATLFaZe is SCARY!@aBeZy & @Cellium combine for 21-5 on S&D, gaining a 2-0 lead against @DallasEmpire.
👻 https://t.co/wmB1gxuPFf pic.twitter.com/u9URBh8ckB
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) May 13, 2021
The major storyline from the series was how much FeLo struggled. The replacement for Huke finished with a 0.60 KD in the series, often getting outgunned by fellow AR McArthur “Cellium” Jovel, who posted a whopping 1.68 series KD.
Another point of interest coming into the series was if Dallas would be able to neutralize the dominant SMG duo of Chris “Simp” Lehr and Tyler “aBeZy” Pharris. This was an easier task with Huke’s talented SMG on the roster. Indervir “iLLeY” Dhaliwal let FaZe’s SMGs run wild as he tried to fill in for his former teammate. aBeZy finished with an impressive 1.33 KD in the match.
IS @aBeZy HUMAN?!? 🤖#EZAF | #CDL2021 pic.twitter.com/eAOT3dZJah
— Call of Duty League (@CODLeague) May 13, 2021
Atlanta looks forward to playing Toronto
The FaZe star was certainly the glue that held Atlanta together in the match. aBeZy didn’t spend much time on Dallas as he focused on his upcoming match against the Toronto in a post-match interview.
“We’re feeling great going into that match,” aBeZy said. “We’ve been playing very, very well in scrimmages the past week or two so for that match we’re just going to play how we’ve been playing, especially like today, and hopefully we can beat them.”
The series will be a must-see as this is the first time the teams have played since the Stage 2 Major. Atlanta and Toronto will square off May 14 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. For Dallas, they drop to the loser’s bracket and play next on Saturday, May 15.
